A couple purchased surveillance cameras to survey their property, which inadvertently waged an expensive war with their HOA.
Protecting Their Assets.
The couple wanted cameras to monitor the vehicles and reassured their neighbors that nobody’s privacy would be violated.
“The cameras were battery operated and had a function where you could “gray out” areas that you didn’t want to film. When motion occurred in the grayed out areas, the cameras would not be activated to film.”
Protecting People’s Privacy.
The couple ensured their neighbors’ yards were grayed out so as not to infringe on their privacy.
“The neighbors’ entire properties and several bushes on our property were grayed out – we did this when installing them.”
One Neighbor Was Fine – The Other Wasn’t.
While one neighbor had no issues with the cameras, it was a different story from the other.
“The other neighbor’s name was Karen (not really, but we all know why I chose that name). Karen was on the HOA board, and, as you can imagine, we didn’t get along with Karen or the HOA Board. We told Karen about the camera and showed her the grayed-out areas at the same time that we told our friendly neighbor about it. It was simply an FYI conversation (we are not on friendly terms) – not an ‘asking permission’ conversation.”
She Demanded The Cameras Be Removed.
Or the couple would “regret it.”
“About a week after we hung the camera up, we got a notice from our HOA that we were violating the bylaws. The bylaw in question? A ‘nuisance to your neighbors’ bylaw. There wasn’t a specific bylaw preventing placement of cameras, so this is all they could find to try to punish us.”
Cease And Desist.
The couple responded to the letter saying no such “bylaw” or regular law was being violated and that the HOA needed to back off.
“Their first response? ‘The HOA has the right to enforce these bylaws. Try to stop us if you think you can.’ (These types of responses were, unfortunately, quite common from this board.)”
The Battle Commenced.
The couple’s goal is to cost the HOA as much time and money as possible.
“The HOA hired a lawyer specifically to fight us. To my knowledge, this has not happened to any other residents. In the following 4 months, we ended up costing the HOA over $4,000 in lawyers’ fees fighting this battle. For reference, the entire HOA income was ~$25,000/year.”
Their Plan Was Working – But They Still Took Down The Cameras.
“When it came time for our official HOA hearing over the matter, we had successfully postponed it (thanks to an attorney friend) 3 separate times. There were over 100 back-and-forth emails between the HOA attorney and ourselves. Each one of those emails was a 15-minute expense for the HOA. And I was happy to follow up a follow-up question with another follow-up question if it meant the HOA attorney was going to keep billing them (Did I say ‘follow up’ enough times?).”
Guilty Verdict.
Come the time of the trial, to no one’s surprise, the HOA found the couple “guilty” of bylaw violation.
“They couldn’t fine us though – as the bylaws don’t allow a fine until after a hearing has been held – and the cameras were already removed.”
The Letter And The Loophole.
“In the end, the punishment was a sternly written piece of paper on the attorney’s letterhead (delivered via certified mail) that stated that we were “…not allowed to place a camera on our home that had the potential to invade a neighbor’s privacy.”
“Keep in mind, the letter specifically stated the camera could not be placed ‘on our home.’”
The Next HOA Meeting Unearthed A Revelation.
Four months later, at the annual HOA meeting, the couple spoke up about an interesting snippet of information they’d learned.
“You should have seen the look on the HOA Board’s faces when I asked them to explain the $4,000 line item for attorney’s fees that simply stated ‘Title searches – Attorney fees.’”
Caught With Their Pants Down.
The Board actually tried to hide the fact that they spent $4k trying to fight us over a couple of cameras by putting the fees in as ‘Title searches.’
“Needless to say, that meeting did not go well for them. About half of them lost their positions on the Board. Unfortunately, the other half (including Karen) remained on the Board.”
New Cameras.
After being found guilty, the couple had taken down the cameras on their home, but they’d devised a way around this.
“About a week after the annual meeting, we installed new cameras – facing the same direction as the prior cameras – only this time, we installed a post in the ground and mounted the cameras to that post. The admonishment we received after the hearing specifically stated that we were not allowed to install cameras ‘on our home’ – and said nothing about putting them on a post.”
They Made One More Flimsy Attempt At A Fight.
The HOA tried to exercise its power again over the new cameras.
“They did send a letter to try to tell us to remove the cameras, but a sternly worded response indicating that we were prepared to fight them actually worked this time around. I guess they didn’t want to spend another $4k fighting us. We didn’t receive any follow-up responses. And the cameras on the post are still installed to this day (over 2 years and running strong).
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